170 to lose their jobs in Sturgis

STURGIS, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - The community of Sturgis has had more than its fair share of tough news lately, and on Wednesday the recession delivered another blow.

A few days ago, Penguin said it was cutting more than 100 jobs from its plant in Sturgis, and from a nearby warehouse in Howe, Indiana.

Wednesday's bad news came from Morgan Olson. After nearly 60 years in business, the company is laying off 170 workers.

It's another tough blow for a community that was already reeling from job losses. Sturgis has seen layoff upon layoff and it's taking a toll.

The City of Sturgis recently learned that one of its major employers, Penguin, the metal working and finishing company, would let go of 150 employees over several months.

Then on Wednesday, the city learned that Morgan Olson, the truck manufacturing company would also be letting employees go, about 170 of them in fact.

The news is enough to make anyone in Sturgis pessimistic, but many are just trying to maintain perspective.

"I can't remember, maybe back as far as '82, '83 we had something similar," said Kelly Murphy of Sturgis, "for lack of a better word it's just brutal, I mean throughout the state."

"There's always a bottom," said Alan Kasmauskis, "everyone's going to have a problem until this thing starts turning around, it's a slow process and there's going to be some pain before it gets better."

For Kasmauskis, there's a bitter irony in the fact that while companies in Sturgis hand out pink slips, companies like AIG hand out million dollar bonuses with tax money that's coming from American workers who are getting laid off.

"I don't believe in what AIG is doing," said Kasmauskis, "it's wrong, wrong, wrong, all the way wrong, but these boys, these girls got unemployment and I'm hoping it'll tide them over until this thing starts turning around."

Newschannel 3 contacted Morgan Olson on Wednesday, but the compnay offered no details on the layoff plans. We were told there would be 'no comment' on them.